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In the Tribune yesterday, \u201cFor Amazon\u2019s Bezos, philanthropy is \u2018saved for later\u2019<\/a>\u201c, which turns the fact that Bezos is focused on making money \u2014 and lots of it \u2014 into an expectation that he will, of course, give generously as a philanthropist, when the time is right.<\/p>\n Which seems like more than a little bit of wishful thinking.<\/p>\n Here, after all, are some of the quotes they\u2019ve gathered.<\/p>\n \u201cJeff is probably not quite ready to step down yet, but this is a guy who, like Bill, is fixated on changing the world in really important ways,\u201d says Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, who has solicited donations from Bezos. \u201cIt\u2019s a full-time job. You have to imagine he will be every bit as philanthropic as Gates. Nobody has any right to make demands, and they have to give the guy time.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n Making a major commitment takes humility and years of research to go down the right path, so for someone as work-obsessed as Bezos, \u201cyou\u2019d really want to have a trusted partner or set of partners around you,\u201d says Jeff Raikes, a former Microsoft executive who ran the Gates Foundation for almost six years. . . .<\/p>\n Much of the known personal giving associated with Bezos so far has been driven by his parents, Mike and Jackie Bezos. He sits on the board of the childhood-education focused Bezos Family Foundation, which his parents run. As of 2015, his parents had donated more than $68 million of Amazon stock to the foundation, tax filings show. Bezos had given about $6 million in stock to the foundation. Separately, the Bezos family has given $65 million over a decade to Seattle\u2019s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which does cutting-edge work on cancer cures. \u201cMy parents rock,\u201d Bezos tweeted when the latest gift was announced.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yes, that\u2019s right:\u00a0 the major Bezos philanthropy is that of his parents<\/a>, who were either given, or were early purchasers of, Amazon stock.<\/p>\n Bezos himself, according to the Trib, has given only small sums, relative to his enormous wealth:\u00a0 $1 million to Code.org, $10 million to Seattle\u2019s Museum of History & Industry, $15 million to Princeton.\u00a0 The Trib mentions $2.5 million in support to a pro-gay marriage PAC in 2012 (that is, before Obergefell<\/em>), but that\u2019s not actually philanthropy.\u00a0 Amazon itself is cited as having been \u201clargely MIA as a corporate donor in Seattle\u201d for many years until public pressure caused them to change.<\/p>\n Now, you\u2019ve got the Giving Pledge<\/a> as a model.\u00a0 Billionaires pledge to give the majority of their wealth to charity.\u00a0 But \u2014 surprise! \u2014 they do not pledge to do so during their lifetime; they can spend as much as they want, really, enjoy unfathomable luxuries.\u00a0 The Giving Pledge seems to me, except for a few who really do spend down their wealth while living, to be a way to get credit for their professed intention of making bequests when they die.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty risk-free,\u00a0if you decide that your offspring are adequately provided for with a couple hundred million or so each (most of the pledgers have wealth in the 1 \u2013 3 billion range).<\/p>\n I spent a few minutes trying to assess whether\u00a0being a Buffet- or Gates-style philanthropist is the norm.\u00a0 Here, after all, is Forbes\u2019 list<\/a> of the top ten wealthiest Americans:<\/p>\n Of these, Wikipedia reports that Larry Ellison<\/a> has given away 1% of his wealth (part of this as an element of a legal settlement).\u00a0 Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> and his wife have pledged to give away 99% of their fortune, but it is not clear how much they have actually given away at this point in time.\u00a0 Larry Page has a family foundation<\/a> with assets of $1 billion, but it\u2019s not clear how much came from Page personally.\u00a0 Sergey Brin and his ex-wife\u00a0Anne Wojcicki (CEO and co-founder of 23andme) have founded the Brin Wojciciki Foundation<\/a>, with assets of about $1.4 billion as of 2014.\u00a0 Bloomberg \u2014 well, there\u2019s lengthy list of causes<\/a> Bloomberg supports, and his political activism blends into his charitable actions (does a donation to an anti-coal environmentalist group or a gun-control group come under political advocacy or philanthropy?).\u00a0 \u00a0The Kochs?\u00a0 Well, in 2015, it was reported<\/a> that they had donated $1.5 billion to a variety of causes, from hospitals to museums and the arts, stirring controversy along the way from people who preferred that museums reject those donations.<\/p>\n None of these men, of course, have followed the Tom Monaghan<\/a> model.\u00a0 The founder of Domino\u2019s Pizza and one-time owner of the Detroit Tigers, wanting to be more true to his faith, sold a 93% stake in the company, and sold the Tigers, and his\u00a0Bugatti Royale, and his private island-resort (well, he didn\u2019t own the whole island, but had a private resort on Michigan\u2019s Drummond Island), and instead began a life of philanthropy generous enough as to found an entire university, Ave Maria University<\/a>, with 1,000-ish students and tuition<\/a> that, at about $20,000, is nearly\u00a0as low as some public universities.<\/p>\n But the very concept of Bezos, a man who is, near as I can tell, driven by moneymaking and power (and whose company\u2019s success was fueled, in part, by the exemption from sales taxes which he fought to retain, and which is causing the demise, not just of bricks-and-mortar retailers but of the urban spaces around them), simultaneously working to Make The World A Better Place?\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry, but I just don\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n Sure, I can imagine that public pressure and the need for a good public image will motivate philanthropy, as well as, ultimately, the recognition that the mere fact of possessing money that he cannot possibly enjoy except as a number to contemplate, is somewhat superfluous.\u00a0 But it rather seems that he does have plans for his money \u2014 the Tribune cites a plan to build up his space exploration company BlueOrigin \u2014 and imagines that, with such vast wealthy, he can\u2019t possibly do something mundane but has to reserve his money for something truly extraordinary.<\/p>\n\n